Northumberland Learning Disability Service

Northumberland Learning Disability Service operates from Shaftsbury House. 21 – 26 Shaftsbury Close in Morpeth, holding CQC registration as a supported living service, within the North East region. The registered provider is Home Group Limited, the legal entity accountable to the regulator for the quality and safety of care delivered here.

Supported living enables adults with learning disabilities, autism, mental health needs or physical disabilities to live in their own homes — usually a rented flat or shared house — with care and support workers visiting or on site for anywhere from a few hours a week to 24 hours a day. Unlike a care home, the person holds their own tenancy: they choose who supports them, and housing and care are legally separate. Northumberland Learning Disability Service is CQC-registered for the personal-care element of this support.

The model matters because it changes the power relationship. In supported living, support is built around the person's tenancy rights and choices — what time to get up, what to eat, who visits — and commissioners increasingly prefer it to residential care for working-age adults. Done well, it delivers genuine independence with a safety net; the quality of the provider determines which half of that sentence dominates.

For funding and referral purposes the location sits in the Northumberland local authority area of the North East region, in a city with 46 registered healthcare providers of all types — relevant because needs assessments, social-care budgets and many community services are organised along these boundaries.

The CQC's most recent recorded check of this location took place on 30 June 2021. Inspection reports are public documents, and the official record for this location is linked in the registration section below — reading the latest report is the single most reliable way to understand how the service performs day to day.

Supported living providers register for the groups they are trained and organised to support — the CQC record for Northumberland Learning Disability Service lists:

Caring for children (0 - 18yrs)

A children's registration brings its own regulatory expectations: paediatric-trained staff, enhanced safeguarding arrangements aligned to children's legislation, family-centred care planning, and premises and equipment appropriate to children and young people rather than scaled-down adult services.

Caring for adults under 65 yrs

Registration for working-age adults signals a service oriented around different goals than elderly care: maintaining employment and family roles, rehabilitation and independence, and care plans built around an active life rather than primarily around frailty management.

Learning disabilities

Providers registered for learning disability support are expected to work to national standards emphasising choice, community participation and the least restrictive support possible. Look for evidence of communication tailored to the person (easy-read, Makaton), annual health checks facilitation, and positive behaviour support in place of restrictive practice.

Mental health conditions

This registration covers support for people living with mental illness — from anxiety and depression through severe and enduring conditions. Expect staff trained in mental health, risk assessment and crisis planning, and joint working with community mental health teams and, where relevant, the Mental Health Act framework.

Caring for adults over 65 yrs

The service is registered to care for older adults, which carries practical expectations: staff trained in frailty, falls prevention and pressure-area care; environments that accommodate reduced mobility; and care planning that accounts for multiple long-term conditions and polypharmacy — the norm rather than the exception over 65.

Substance misuse problems

The provider is registered to support people with drug or alcohol problems. Depending on the service this spans structured detoxification, residential rehabilitation programmes, or community support — with clinical governance around withdrawal management, relapse prevention and safeguarding at its core.

When comparing providers, match the declaration to your actual situation rather than to the longest list: a service registered for exactly your needs, with depth in them, generally serves you better than one registered for everything. If your circumstances span two groups — say, a physical disability alongside a mental health condition — ask specifically how the service coordinates both, because that intersection is where care plans most often fall short.

Treat these declarations as the service's public promise — inspectors check against them, and you are entitled to ask exactly how each one shows up in staffing and daily practice.

This reflects the standard service range of a supported living service; Northumberland Learning Disability Service will confirm which of these are offered on site and which are arranged by referral.

Daily living support

Help with cooking, shopping, budgeting, cleaning and correspondence — building skills rather than creating dependence.

Personal care

Where needed, support with washing, dressing and medication, delivered under the person's own roof and routine.

Community access

Support to work, volunteer, study, and take part in social activities — the outcomes commissioners actually measure.

Positive behaviour support

For people whose behaviour challenges, structured PBS plans that reduce restrictions rather than manage them indefinitely.

Tenancy support

Help maintaining the tenancy itself: understanding agreements, managing utilities, and liaising with landlords.

Health coordination

Support to attend GP, dental and hospital appointments, and annual health checks for people with learning disabilities.

24-hour and waking-night support

For those with higher needs, staff on site around the clock — while preserving the person's tenancy and choice.

To contact Northumberland Learning Disability Service directly, call 07903342014 or use the enquiry route on its website (linked in the contact section above).

Access to supported living with Northumberland Learning Disability Service almost always runs through the local authority: an adult social care needs assessment establishes eligible needs, a support plan sets out hours and outcomes, and a personal budget funds it. Families can approach the provider directly to visit services and join waiting lists in parallel — vacancy timing depends on suitable housing being available, so early conversations pay off.

Self-funders and families holding direct payments can contract directly with the provider. Either way, insist on a proper matching process: a good provider will introduce the prospective tenant to housemates and staff, run trial visits, and be honest when a vacancy is a poor match. Rushed placements to fill voids are the sector's most common failure.

Housing is arranged separately — usually a housing association tenancy, sometimes a family-owned property. Check benefit implications carefully: housing costs are typically covered by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit housing element, and the tenancy must be genuine for those to apply.

Published opening hours for Northumberland Learning Disability Service are not yet held on this profile — the register does not record them, and hours appear here once the provider claims and completes its listing. A quick phone call (07903342014) remains the definitive check, and it is worth making even where hours are published, since bank holidays and staffing can change a given day.

As a rule of thumb for services of this type, phone lines are least pressured mid-morning and mid-afternoon on midweek days; Monday mornings carry the weekend's accumulated demand and are the slowest time to get through almost everywhere in healthcare.

A first appointment at a supported living service is part assessment, part administration — and you control how productive the assessment half is.

Bring the paperwork that saves repeating yourself: a list of current medications with doses (a photo of the boxes works), any relevant hospital letters or test results, your NHS number if you know it, and glasses or hearing aids if you use them. If the appointment concerns someone you care for, bring evidence of any legal authority you hold — power of attorney documents change what staff can lawfully discuss with you.

Expect the first appointment to include identity and history checks, a discussion of what you need, and an examination or assessment appropriate to the service. Be direct about two things in particular: everything you are taking (including over-the-counter and herbal products), and what outcome you actually want — clinicians plan differently for "I want to be seen quickly" versus "I want the most thorough option".

Before you leave, make sure three questions have answers: what happens next, who does it, and when. Vague follow-up arrangements are where care most often goes adrift; a specific next step — a booked review, a named referral, a results date with a way to chase it — is the mark of a well-run service, and it is entirely reasonable to ask for it explicitly.

Support costs are usually funded through a local-authority personal budget following assessment, with the person contributing according to a financial assessment of income and benefits (capital thresholds mirror other social care). Housing costs sit separately and are normally met through Housing Benefit for eligible tenants; day-to-day living costs come from the person's benefits or income, exactly as for any tenant.

For people with the most complex needs, joint NHS/social-care funding or full NHS Continuing Healthcare may apply. Ask the social worker to be explicit about which budget funds which element — disputes between health and social care funders should never delay support, and families are entitled to see the support plan and costings.

You will find Northumberland Learning Disability Service at Shaftsbury House. 21 – 26 Shaftsbury Close,Morpeth. The NE61 2GJ postcode places it in the NE61 district of Morpeth, and entering the full postcode into a sat-nav or maps app will route you precisely — or use the Google Maps link for this exact location.

If you are travelling by public transport, plan the last leg around the postcode rather than the service name — journey planners resolve postcodes far more reliably. Arriving by car, check parking arrangements when you book: town-centre services often rely on nearby public car parks, while suburban and residential locations usually offer on-site or on-street options.

Think about journey frequency before fixating on any single provider: a one-off assessment justifies travel, but ongoing care multiplies every mile. With 46 providers of all types across Morpeth, most neighbourhoods — including NE61 — have credible options within a short journey.

If you use a wheelchair, travel with a carer, or need any adjustment — a quieter waiting area, longer appointment, or interpreter — raise it when booking rather than on arrival. CQC-registered providers are expected to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act, and almost all handle them smoothly given notice.

If this location is not convenient, the nearest comparable alternative is Shared Lives Northumberland, roughly 1.5 miles away — the nearby providers section below lists more options with distances.

The right questions do more than fill an appointment — they reveal how a supported living service thinks. These are the ones that earn their place:

1. Who exactly will provide my care, and what is their professional registration?
2. What are the realistic timescales — first appointment, results, and treatment?
3. What will this cost in total, and what could add to that figure later?
4. What are the alternatives, including doing nothing for now?
5. How do you handle problems out of hours, and who do I contact?
6. What should I expect to feel or notice afterwards, and what would be a warning sign?
7. How will you keep my GP informed, and what gets written to my record?
8. If my needs change, how quickly can the plan change with them?

None of these are hostile questions — they are the questions well-led services answer every day without flinching, and hesitation in answering them is itself useful information.

Registration with the Care Quality Commission is what permits this service to operate. What helps you choose is everything the regulator publishes about it afterwards.

The CQC inspects against five questions — is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led — and publishes its findings. For Northumberland Learning Disability Service, the registered provider is Home Group Limited. The most recent recorded check took place on 30 June 2021. The official CQC record for this location carries the current registration status, ratings where awarded, and every published inspection report.

The rating scale runs Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate — and context matters when reading it. Good is the expected standard, not a consolation prize; Outstanding is genuinely rare and usually reflects exceptional leadership culture rather than better equipment. A Requires Improvement rating deserves a closer look at which of the five questions dragged it down: a responsive shortfall (waiting times, complaint handling) is a different risk from a safe shortfall (medicines, staffing). Some location types are inspected without ratings at all, so an unrated service is not a warning sign in itself.

Reading a report efficiently: start with the well-led section (it predicts everything else), then safe. Look at the direction of travel across the last two inspections rather than a single snapshot, and treat "requires improvement" with a credible action plan differently from the same rating with repeated findings. If anything in a report concerns you, raising it with the service directly is both fair and revealing — well-run providers answer plainly.

Your relationship with any registered provider sits on a legal foundation worth knowing before you ever need it.

You are entitled to informed consent — a genuine explanation of options, risks and alternatives before treatment, in language you understand, with interpreters provided where needed. You have a right of access to your own records under UK GDPR, free of charge in most cases, within a month of asking. And under the Equality Act, providers must make reasonable adjustments for disability — from step-free access to communication formats — as a legal duty, not a favour.

If care falls short, complain in stages: first to the provider itself (every registered service must operate an accessible complaints procedure and respond within a defined timescale); then, for NHS-funded care, to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman — or for privately funded care, to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service where the provider subscribes. Local authority-funded social care complaints escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Two further channels matter. The CQC does not investigate individual complaints, but it wants to hear about poor care — reports feed directly into inspection planning, and you can tell it anything in confidence via its website. And if you need help making a complaint about NHS care, every area has a statutory independent advocacy service that is free to use; your council can point you to the current provider.

Morpeth has 46 CQC-registered healthcare providers in total, of which 4 are supported living services — so genuine comparison is possible before you commit. The full Morpeth directory and the local supported living listing let you shortlist alongside this profile.

Comparing the 4 supported living providers around Morpeth, look past glossy person-centred language and ask for evidence: staff turnover figures, how many tenants have moved toward greater independence, and a copy of a (redacted) support plan to judge quality. Visit at unstructured times, talk to tenants and families, and check the CQC report — the caring and responsive domains reveal whether choice is real or theoretical.

Where is Northumberland Learning Disability Service located?

Northumberland Learning Disability Service is at Shaftsbury House. 21 – 26 Shaftsbury Close,Morpeth, NE61 2GJ, in Morpeth (North East region). The full postcode works in any sat-nav or journey planner.

How do I contact Northumberland Learning Disability Service?

Call 07903342014 during opening hours. The practice also runs a website with an enquiry route. For funding-route questions (NHS availability, fees), asking directly by phone gets the current position.

Is Northumberland Learning Disability Service regulated?

Yes — it is registered with the Care Quality Commission (location ID 1-6720784068) under the registered provider Home Group Limited. Registration is a legal requirement for delivering this type of care in England and brings ongoing inspection.

When was Northumberland Learning Disability Service last checked by the CQC?

The most recent check recorded on the register took place on 30 June 2021. The full inspection history is on the official CQC record linked from this page.

What are the nearest alternatives to Northumberland Learning Disability Service?

The closest comparable providers are Shared Lives Northumberland (1.5 miles), Positive Support For You CIC (4.1 miles), ISSAC (4.1 miles). Each has a full profile on this site with contact details and registration information.

How is supported living different from a care home?

In supported living you hold your own tenancy and choose your support provider; housing and care are legally separate, and you can change one without losing the other. In a care home, accommodation and care come as one regulated package.

Who pays for supported living?

Support hours are usually funded via a local-authority personal budget after assessment (means-tested contribution may apply); rent is typically covered by Housing Benefit or Universal Credit; living costs come from the person's own income and benefits.

Can someone with very complex needs live in supported living?

Yes — 24-hour and waking-night models support people with significant needs, sometimes NHS-funded. Success depends on honest matching, environment design and staff skill, so scrutinise the provider's experience with similar needs.

Does Northumberland Learning Disability Service treat NHS or private patients?

The public register does not record funding routes, and many providers serve both. Phone the service for the current position — NHS availability in particular changes as capacity fills and reopens, so today's answer beats anything a directory can cache.

Where does the information on this page come from?

Core details — name, address, registration, provider and specialisms — come from the Care Quality Commission register (Open Government Licence v3.0) and are refreshed monthly. Guidance sections reflect how services of this type work across the UK. Always confirm time-sensitive details such as opening hours directly with the provider.